Status Updates From Inside the Box: How Constra...

“Maximizers are less satisfied with their decisions and their lives, less optimistic, less happy, more prone to regret, and more likely to endlessly compare themselves to others. It’s not that relatives satificers have low standards; they can have high standards. It’s that they *have standards at all* other than ‘best imaginable,’ so they create the possibility of satisfaction with their choices.”

“Allendale’s January 8 ritual is a form of what social scientists call a ‘commitment device’: a self-imposed restriction of freedom in service of a larger goal.

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Commitment devices have been shown to help people save more money (when they open accounts with limited withdrawal windows) and exercise more (using voluntary contracts in which participants have to pay if they skip too many days).”